Senators Cortez Masto, Padilla, Advocates, and Directly Impacted People Discuss Work to Protect “Keeping Families Together” Program from Anti-Immigrant Lawsuit

Las Vegas, Nev. - Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), FWD.us and Justice Action Center (JAC) joined a press call to discuss efforts to help American families remain together through the Biden-Harris administration's new Keeping Families Together Parole in Place (PIP) program.

On the call, the speakers spoke about their work to prevent families from being separated after a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas granted an administrative stay earlier this week barring the federal government from granting approvals for the Keeping Families Together parole process for 14 days. The judge's order came the same day as Justice Action Center and others filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit Texas v. DHSon behalf of 11 directly impacted individuals.

"I've consistently pushed the Biden-Harris administration to take executive action to secure our border and to protect hardworking mixed-status families - and in June they did both," said Senator Cortez Masto. "I was thrilled to see the administration take critical steps to help keep our immigrant families together. I have full confidence in this process, which is a gamechanger for so many families in Nevada. While I'm deeply disappointed in the Texas court ruling, I'm not giving up. I'm going to keep working to deliver the relief our families deserve."

"No family should be forced apart for years because of our outdated immigration system," said Senator Padilla. "This latest attempt from anti-immigrant leaders in Texas and other states to keep American families in limbo and at risk of separation and deportation is unconscionable. Implementing the Keeping Families Together process isn't just critical to upholding our values as a nation of immigrants - it's also strategic to uplifting our growing economy that relies on these long-term residents. That's why I urged President Biden to establish this process to keep mixed-status families together in the first place and won't stop fighting for this commonsense policy."

"Former President Trump's closest anti-immigrant allies are making an outrageous attempt to block the Biden-Harris policy to Keep Families Together, providing a stark contrast: Will we keep American families united while building a more orderly and secure border, or will we follow the Trumpist approach of blocking relief and fostering chaos for political gain?" said Todd Schulte, President of FWD.us. "By January 20th, our country should be on its way to protecting hundreds of thousands of American families who have lived here for decades and deserve to be together. The alternative is a return to Trump-era family separations, not just at the border, but now targeting millions more families in communities across the entire nation."

"Any court considering whether to halt this process needs to consider perspectives like those of our clients, whose families' futures are at stake if this transformative process were to end," said Hillary Li, Counsel for Justice Action Center. "Keeping Families Together Parole has the potential to be life-changing, not just for the undocumented immigrants submitting applications, but for their U.S. citizen families, their friends and colleagues, and their communities."

"I have been waiting decades for a program like the Keep Families Together parole program," said Foday Turay, an applicant for the KFT parole program. "Over 22% of my current wages go toward federal taxes, Social Security, Medicare, State, local and state taxes. These are benefits that Americans rely on every day. Tearing apart families like mine will not only devastate me, it will impact everyday taxpayers because my U.S. citizen spouse and child will have to depend on government benefits to make ends meet while I am forced to leave the country for years to access a pathway to citizenship that already exists for me through marriage. I am ready to fight to protect this commonsense program."

The first and only Latina Senator, Senator Cortez Masto has consistently fought to fix our broken immigration system by balancing critical border security measures with commonsense immigration reforms that treat families with dignity. Cortez Masto pushed the Biden-Harris administration to take executive action to protect hardworking mixed-status families in Nevada and across the country. She's introduced legislation to fix our outdated immigration laws, led calls to address delays in DACA renewal applications and fought to make it easier for mixed status families to stay together.

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